Re: First THOR measurement results

["Kennan C Herrick" <kcha1-at-xxxxxxxx> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

Hi Marco (& all)-

A couple of comments, interspersed--

[snipped]

> 2. To discharge into air, I needed to add a copper stick on the top 
> of the
> toroid: only then I had a secure discharge into air or to a nearby 
> grounded
> rod.
> Breaking into air sucks pretty quickly too all the energy away and 
> there is
> also
> nothing strange with that.
> 3. With no copper stick I have difficulties to get any streamer at 
> all. This
> makes me think that I don't generate enough potential at the 
> secondary to
> breakout. The toroid r.o.c. is a little too big. But my RSG is 
> unable to
> quench!!! See the snapshot!
> 
> Question:
> - do you agree with me about the above?

[kch]  I agree that you don't have enough voltage to break out from the
toroid itself.  My thought on this is as follows (but I haven't tried it
yet):  Take a conductive (hemi)sphere of somewhat less radius than the
c.s. radius of the toroid & place it down in the center of the toroid so
that it just peeks up above the top, connecting it electrically to the
toroid.  By adjusting the vertical height of that (hemi)sphere, you ought
to be able to cause spark break-out, from it, at just prior to the
highest voltage you can generate.

> - I think that if I could quench the RSG I could accumulate more 
> charge on the
> toroid, reach the actual breakout threshold and get longer streamers 
> WITHOUT
> NEEDING THE ROD: do you agree?
> - in order to better the quenching, shouldn't I add a fixed SG set 
> in series to
> the RSG? Wouldn't that be OK?
> 
[kch] Can't comment on RSG since my setup is s.s.
> 
> Question 2
> ---------------
> The performance of Thor (spark length) decreases quite rapidly 
> within 15-30
> seconds. This is expecially noticeable without the copper rod placed 
> on the
> toroid: then streamers are quite rare and stop coming within 10-15 
> seconds.
> What
> might be the reason? I suppose the RSG overheating and crippling the 
> quenching
> or what? I have already heard of this kind of behaviour but I can't 
> recall what
> was the explanation. Anybody?
> 
[kch]  Could anyone corroborate a suspicion that it might have to do with
accumulated charged molecules in the vicinity diminishing the voltage at
which break-out occurs?
> 
> 
> 

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